The U.S. government had sold 9,861 Bitcoins early this March and pocketed nearly $216 million in the treasury. Bitcoin was priced at around $20,000 to $22,000 when the U.S. government sold its trove seven months ago. Fast forward to today, BTC is hovering at the $34,000 mark and is attracting bullish sentiments in the indices.
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If the U.S. government had sold its Bitcoin trove today, it could have pocketed $322 million, while BTC is at $34,000. Therefore, the government lost out on $116 million by selling their BTCs much earlier.
How Does the U.S. Government Accumulate Bitcoin?
The U.S. acquires Bitcoins through seizures related to criminal proceedings, scams, and other forms of illegal activities initiated by fraudsters. All seized BTCs fall under the control of the government which has the right to sell them in the open markets.
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U.S. holds another 41,490 BTC which was seized from scamster James Zhong, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Zhong manipulated transactions on the dark net and siphoned Bitcoins from the Silk Road marketplace.
The government has also promised to sell the remaining 41,490 BTC later this year which is currently worth $1.4 billion. Apart from BTCs seized from Zhong, the government holds another $5.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in the treasury.
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BTC is up nearly 102% since January to October 2023. The king cryptocurrency was trading at $16,500 at the start of the year and doubled in price touching $34,000 this month. The phenomenal rise comes despite the markets being in the bear territory.
At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $34,000 and is down nearly 1% in the 24-hour day trade. BTC is also down nearly 51% from its all-time high of $69,044, which it reached in November 2021. It’s been three years now since the leading cryptocurrency failed to climb above its ATH.